Legendary (Review)

Legendary

(Caraval #2)

by Stephanie Garber

Pages: 451 // Published: May 29, 2018 // Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Synopsis

After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister, Scarlett, from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.

The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister’s. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice, but now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever…

Welcome, welcome to Caraval . . . the games have only just begun.

My Thoughts

Welcome, welcome to Legendary … my first ever buddy read! I was so lucky to do my first buddy read with Gigi @ The Beachy Reader!! It was truly fun experience and I’m so glad to have made a friend in the process!

Legendary! Back into the magical world of Caraval! I had high hopes going into this one as I saw alot of Bloggers giving it 5 stars. Sadly, it was not my cup of tea in the end…

What I loved… 

• TELLA ALL DAY ERRDAY: In Legendary, we get to witness the book through Tella’s eyes which is grossly better than Scarlett’s perspective and I enjoyed her spunk and DGAF attitude to most things. She’s extremely stubborn and I dug it.
• THE FATES: We’re introduced to the Fates, who kill it as …I guess villains? They have strong Tarot card vibes and they were creepy, which is all good in my book.
• FINDING OUT WHO LEGEND IS: Spoiler not Spoiler, there is a big reveal in the book.
• PRINCE OF HEARTS: The bad boy we love to gush about and gives us crazy heart eyes.

What I didn’t love…

• NOTHING HAPPENS, REALLY? To be honest, both Gigi and I struggled to keep reading around chapter 20, it was half way through and like nothing happened?
• CARVAL WASN’T CARAVAL? There wasn’t really a Caraval or much of any game really during the whole book, this is where I thought the first book exceeded the second instalment.
• STORYLINE NOT CONSISTENT WITH CARAVAL: I enjoyed the Fates but they kinda come out of the blue for me, they weren’t really mentioned in the first book and the second book was all about it…and it didn’t feel coherent to me.
• LEGEND REVEAL FAIL: Even though I loved to find out who Legend is, the ending was anticlimactic to me, like c’mon! Huge opportunity and it was like…poop. I get perturbed thinking about it.
• SCARLETT & JULIAN: I found their storyline boring and annoying, again so much more could have been done with them.
• INSTALOVE: There was instalove. No thanks…

So yes… more complaints than likes, BUT I loved reading it along with Gigi. It was fun to complain and guess what was going to happen next.

I recco this book only if you’ve read Caraval and want to know the reveals. But otherwise… I don’t think you’re missing much really. Will I read the last instalment? Maybe if Gigi wants to read it together *wink wink* otherwise I will probably pass…

Have you read Caraval and Legendary? Did you enjoy them? Let me know what you thought in the comments!

Happy Reading!!